 |
|
Hard
Times by Charles
Dickens (Questions with
Answers)
Irony
and Satire in Hard Times.
Dicken's
Hard Times is full with irony and satire.
There lies irony from beginning to the
end. Characterization, way of description,
setting system, everywhere the novel
is full with irony and satire. In
Hard Times, however, Dickens shows himself
also as a great satirist. Hard Times
is predominantly a satirical novel,
and it shows in an abundant measure
Dicken's masterly use of irony, his
tremendous capacity for sarcasm, and
his great power of ridicule. We could
ever say that the greatest asset of
this, novel is its brilliant satire,
although some of the critics are inclined
to treat this novel more as a moral
fable and as a grim book.
|
|
|
It may be pointed out in this
connection that satire generally
has a moral and corrective
purpose. Dicken's satire in
this book is directed against
certain evils, abuses, and
false values of Victorian
society. The targets of satire
in this book are utilitarianism,
materialism and greed for
money, class distinctions,
snobbery, hierocracy and trade
unionism. All these evils
have been satirized in the
person of Gradgrind, Bounderby,
Mrs. Sparsit, James Harthouse,
Bitzeer, Tom and Slackbridge.
Even the people of Coketown
collectively have been satirized.
Read
More...
|
Characterization
in Hard Times.
Dicken's
art of characterization in Hard Times
is one of the important aspects of novel.
His characters are on the one hand symbols
on themselves and by the same token
they are individual too.Though characterization
in Hard Times is taken as one of the
important achievement of Dicken to represent
the Victorian society he has been charged
from two corners. Read
More...
Character
Sketch of Mr. Gradgrind in Hard
Times.
Gradgrind
is representative character of utilitarian
principle in Victorian political economy.
He represents the utilitarianism in
its most rigid form in the sphere of
education, and later in the book in
the sphere of his parliamentary activity.
His theory of education is based up
on the importance of facts, figures
and statistics. Human beings are only
arithmetical units in his eyes; he doesn't
attach any importance to instincts,
feelings, affections, fancy and imagination. Read
More...
|
|
|
